“Ask and it will be given to you…”

“Ask and it will be given to you.” These are words in red in the Gospel of Matthew. I’m a religious woman, but I’ve had moments in my life where I hated this quotation, or its follow up: “For everyone who asks, receives.”

Want to know what my 16 year old heart said to that after losing my brother to myotonic muscular dystrophy at the age of 13?

“Who are You kidding? What about the families with genetic, terminal disease like mine?”

As a child, I threw quarters in wishing fountains every chance I could with one wish. “God, please let Dustin walk one day.” I believed fervently that if I prayed often, made a business of prayer, was always serious and earnest when I asked, that I would get what I prayed for.

I didn’t.

As a teenager, I was angry – angry at God for giving me something as beautiful as my brother and leaving me to something as ugly as the world. I asked God “Why would you give me a brother who couldn’t walk or talk, a boy whose joy came from innocent engagement in the world, a life so beautiful he could change a life in five minutes of meeting him? Why would you give me Dustin then leave me to the healthy people who will live long lives of lying, cheating and stealing their way from pleasure to selfish pleasure?”

I hit a dark spot when I was 16. Have you ever stopped to think what “only the good die young” says to the only remaining child in a family ravaged by genetic disease?

I’m not in that dark spot now.

That’s because of the strength of my mother as she faced weakening muscles. Want to read the true story of the strongest woman I will ever know? From My Mother releases with eLectio Publishing in 8 days on March 29th!